‘Julie-Ann Russell told me ‘this is for Rosie’’ – Eileen Gleeson hails new mum as Ireland break goal drought

It wasn’t enough to prevent a fifth successive defeat, 2-1, in the elite stage of Euro 2025 qualifying but Poland’s two-goal defeat against Austria elsewhere might yet strengthen Ireland’s chances of a favourable autumn play-off route.

Megan Campbell’s trademark late throw came up trumps and flick-ons from Louise Quinn and Caitlyn Hayes allowed Russell to pounce from close range, before wheeling away in delight.

“It’s a great story. I know Julie a very long time and I know her characteristics and at the core of that is work-rate, she works off the ball and on the ball and never, ever gives up. That’s what you saw tonight.

“But as a story, she’s a young mother, she’s come back into the international scene after doing really well at her club in Galway. She is super fit.

“She has come in and we have a new camp baby, Rosie. When she was coming on, I told her to enjoy it.

“And she said ‘this is for Rosie.” So to top it off with a goal is really special for Julie and we’re really proud of her.

“We are off the mark, yes. It took us 94 minutes to do it there tonight but I think the fact we did score in the 94th minute shows the commitment and the effort, the shift the girls put in and they went right to the very end.

“Of course the negative side is that we conceded those two goals, one of them very early on and a penalty we would all consider didn’t need to happen.

“We could have been better in that moment. But yeah, a positive note to end on and a goal in terms of the seeding is super-important. Psychologically that’s a big boost for our confidence going into France’s visit to Cork on Tuesday.”

France topped the group by beating Sweden while England are likely to join them as automatic qualifiers as they now only need a point from their trip to Gothenburg.

“It’s frustrating,” said Sarina Wiegman, whose side scored goals in each half from Alessio Russo and a penalty from Georgia Stanway.

“Alex Greenwood had to put the ball out for a throw to stop an unnecessary counter-attack and we didn’t want throws with Megan Campbell on the field.

“But I’m happy with the result. I thought we started really well, played very well and we scored a goal, an incredible goal. The best goals are the goals that include many players so that was really good.

“I think after that we created still a lot of chances but we should have played more in the pockets and more behind. I think we were sloppy at moments too. In the second half we also could have put it to bed and still had some very great moments. You would hope that we score some more goals.

“The team knows that’s going to be a totally different game against Sweden. It’s a different opponent and they’ll play a different system too.

“I thought the team was really aggressive and fresh today but of course there will be times we need to drop a little deeper.”